A number of villages along the Angara and its tributaries (including the historic fort of Ilimsk on the Ilim), as well as numerous agricultural areas in the river valley, were flooded by these reservoirs. Due to its effects on the way of life of the rural residents of the Angara valley, dam construction has been criticized by a number of Soviet intellectuals, in particular the Irkutsk writer Valentin Rasputin both in his novel Farewell to Matyora and in his non-fiction book, Siberia, Siberia.

The historical significance of the Angara and the Ilim as water routes is attested by a chain of villages along them (many of which, as well as the town of Ilimsk, were flooded by modern dams) on this map from 1773. Note that the lower course of the Angara is labeled as Nizhnyaya Tunguska – the name which is currently applied to another river

The Angara is navigable by modern watercraft on several isolated sections:[6][7][8]

from Lake Baikal to Irkutsk;

from Irkutsk to Bratsk;

on the Ust-Ilimsk Reservoir;

from the Boguchany Dam (Kodinsk) to the river's fall into the Yenisei.

The section between the Ust-Ilimsk Dam and the Boguchany Dam has not been navigable due to rapids. However, with the completion of the Boguchany Dam, and filling of its reservoir, at least part of this section of the river will become navigable as well. Nonetheless, this will not enable through navigation from Lake Baikal to the Yenisei, as none of the existing three dams has been provided with a ship lock or a boat lift, nor will the Boguchany Dam have one.

Despite the absence of a continuous navigable waterway, the Angara and its tributary the Ilim were of considerable importance for Russian colonization of Siberia since ca. 1630, when they (and the necessary portages) formed important water routes connecting the Yenisey with Lake Baikal and the Lena River. The river lost its transportation significance after the construction of an overland route between Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk and, later, the Trans-Siberian Railway.